Ques. Can we apply the truth of Song of Solomon 5:2, "I sleep, but my heart waketh" to saints now? Is it like Rev. 3:20? A. M.
Ans. Such scriptures picture declension of soul, getting asleep in the world. Christ has not the place He once had in her affections, but she has no comfort, is restless and unhappy. The Lord is knocking at her door. Twinges of remorse and pain mix with her so-called pleasures. She has lost the enjoyment of His love. She may be sure of salvation, but she has no joy in it. He calls, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from among the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee." Eph. 5:14.
"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him," will give My sympathy and help in his things, "and he shall sup with Me." "I will give him to enjoy what I enjoy"; and to feed and delight with Christ in all the Father's love, and in all that He is to the Father.
Ques. Did God say, when He created everything, that it was very good? Did God bless His creatures and man, and then curse them; and make the ground bring forth thorns and thistles? Did He put away man forever, and cause him to return to dust? How can Matt. 24:35, be true? P. G.
Ans. When God created everything, all He did was very good (Gen. 1:31). He blessed the animals (ver. 22), and man (ver. 28). So it remained till man's sin ruined God's fair creation, it broke God's rest, and God commenced to work again to bring in a new creation that will glorify Him, and be the display of His character, where sin can never come in to spoil it (John 1:29; 5:15; Rev. 21:1-7).
God cursed the serpent, and for him there is nothing but eternal judgment (Gen. 3:14; Matt. 25:41; Rev. 12:9; 20:10). God also cursed the ground for man's sake, so that it produced thorns and thistles, and gave the man hard work to gain his living (Gen. 3:17-19). Also God cursed Cain, the one who rejected God's testimony, and would not hearken to God's pleading, and murdered the just one; a type of the Jew who rejected and killed Christ, and deliberately departed from God (Gen. 4:5-16).
This wickedness of Cain's line went on to the flood, which God sent to destroy them all. But though God repented that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart (Gen. 6:5, 6), He always made provision for repentant sinners who believed on Him, and He found a ransom for them (Job 33:24). Thus He ever seeks their salvation (Psa. 90:3). Man, as such, is lost, but God calls him to return, and be saved.
There are no promises to Adam as head of a fallen race; all are made to Christ (Gal. 3:16; 2 Cor. 1:20). God let Adam hear the curse He pronounced on the serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise His heel." On hearing that, Adam realized that a Savior was to be of the woman's seed, Who would destroy Satan's, the old serpent's power. In doing this, He would Himself need to suffer (Heb. 2:14, 15). Precious truth that Christ would suffer and die for sinners. Though Adam's body became mortal and went to dust, the Lord tells us that all, both saved and unsaved, will rise again in bodies that will never die. The saved to be in glory with Christ forever; and the unsaved to be cast into the lake of fire, to suffer torment forever (John 5:28, 29; Rev. 20:15; 21:8).
When Adam heard God's sentence on the serpent, and of the coming Savior, he used it as a promise, and called his wife's name Eve, which means, the mother of all living, and that showed his faith in God's word. Both of them were believers, and God made coats of skins and clothed them. This was grace, and those coats of skins were types of Christ, the righteousness of God put upon the believer, like the robe put upon the prodigal (Luke 15). See 2 Cor. 5:21 for our best robe obtained through Christ's sacrifice. Yet Adam was driven out of the garden, and a flaming sword kept the way of the tree of life, lest man should eat of it and be forever a sinner.
The sinner that trusts in the Savior shall be with Christ in glory. He shall eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God (Rev. 2:7).
The earthly, paradise is gone forever, but when heaven and earth shall pass away, God's word shall still stand (24: 35), and be fulfilled, for there will be a new heavens and a new earth, full of redeemed people, where sin can never come, where righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13; Rev. 21:1-7).
All taint of sin shall be removed;
All evil done away,
Where saints shall dwell with God's Beloved
Through God's eternal day.
Do You Know the Lord?
"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3).
The Lord abhors the pretensions to goodness which man is so ready to entertain, but delights to unveil the beauty and simplicity of His grace to the humble soul.
One Lord's day evening a preacher, who had been speaking of Christ to a small company in a room, was asked to speak to a middle-aged man, who remained after the service had closed. He had listened attentively throughout the evening, and now his face wore a troubled expression.